Sarah Koenig Can’t Promise a Perfect Ending to ‘Serial’

Typically, when you work on stories like this, readers never get to see your sloppiness, they never get to hear your dumb questions and they never get to see that you weren’t sure of everything. Oh, so you think I’m sloppy and dumb?

No, I think that —I’m just kidding. But that may be the difference between working in print and radio. I’m just so used to everything being recorded, you kind of get over it.

John Oliver’s Complicated Fun Connects for HBO

Everyone loves a good donkey joke, but still, how is it that explainers of big, complicated current events — the programming equivalent of creamed spinach — have become digital catnip? I think there is, right now, a hunger for a kind of slow news, thoughtful takes that won’t fit inside a Twitter feed. Stephen Colbert demonstrated with his stunt super PAC that topical comedy on dry but important matters can educate in addition to bringing the belly laughs.